Murri Celebrates the Golden Thread, at Cecil Sharp House, 28th June 4-11pm.

A fantastic evening of crafts, dance and music hosted by the Murri Collective, where Special Guests combine to celebrate the golden thread linking UK and USA folk song.

Murri was a folk club I ran during the early 2000s. For one night only it will be resurrected by order of Geoffrey Coupland (Zeel)

This time round we have an excellent selection of workshops, and performers. 

Workshops 4pm - 6pm

Choose from one of the following three workshops:

Harriet Vine: Jewellery Making Workshop 

Join Harriet Vine, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Tatty Devine, in a jewellery making workshop to celebrate The Golden Thread Project. Turn lyrics and imagery from your favourite songs into brooches and necklaces made from laser cut wood and leather, incorporating print and painting to make your favourite music into a wearable conversation piece

Desdemona McCannon: Pilgrim Badge Workshop

In this workshop you will use a place that is a significant destination for you as a starting point to design and make a cloth patch or badge. Using applique and simple printmaking and embroidery techniques, you will make a fabric badge that can be attached to a bag or item of clothing.

Stephen Fowler: Rubber Stamp Broadside Printing Workshop 

Broadside Ballads were published during the sixteenth and up to the nineteenth centuries. They were a single sheet of printed matter consisting of type and woodcut images. This popular print explored all manner of subject matter including love, religion, drinking-songs, legends, and current events of the day such as disasters, political events and signs, wonders and prodigies.
 During Fowler's workshop you will have the choice of a number of printed ballads to illustrate through the technique of hand carved rubber stamp print. By the end of the workshop all participants will go home with an edition of the group’s broadside ballads.


Live Music/Performances 7.30 - 11.00 (doors open 7.00)

Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver (singer and fiddle player)
http://www.lisaknapp.co.uk/    http://www.gerrydiver.com/
Drew Webster
Nick White
Jam Bank (aka Orson Coupland and Jim Stoten)
Dan Eccles and Jake Jones (clog dancers, will be dancing to live music)
And the Murri Collective D.Js 

Tickets
Workshops £20 | £15 Under 26 
Performance £14 | £10 Under 26 
1 Workshop + Performance £27 | £18 Under 26

A transaction fee per sale applies to booking online (£2) or by phone (£2.50). No transaction fee applies to booking in person.


For more information and to buy tickets go to the Cecil Sharp House website: www.cecilsharphouse.org/csh-whats-on

or buy from the Box Office: 020 7485 220

The Golden Thread Opening at Cecil Sharp House.

On evening of the 14th March the Golden Thread Project was officially opened at Cecil Sharp House. 



The Golden Thread project is a celebration of folk songs that have a UK root and found a place in the USA musical tradition. The project takes its inspiration from Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles’ collecting experiences in the Appalachian Mountains, and is based on research undertaken in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

These folk songs have shown that they can survive and transmute themselves over the years and remain relevant. A full-blooded murder ballad or a tragic love ballad, full of strangeness, joy, gloom and passion, is a storytelling opportunity that fires the imagination. Illustrators Geoff Coupland and Aidan Saunders have invited both emerging illustrators and established artists to respond to just such songs with a series of comic strips. The result is a unique exhibition, featuring more than 30 new works, produced in a wonderful variety of graphic styles.

Featuring:

Aidan Saunders, Beau Brannick, Bette Belle Blanchard, Billy Mather, Daryl Rainbow, Drew Webster, Fiontan Fitzgerald, Fran Colomb, Gary Northfield, Hannah Dyson, Hunt Emerson, Jim Stoten, Jonathan Edwards, Jonny Hannah, Kim Fountain, Lesley Barnes, Lord Hurk, Marie Morelle, Mark Stafford, Nick White, Orson Coupland, Peter Lloyd, Rob Nicol, Soju Tanaka, Stephen Fowler, Tommy Brentnall, Woodrow Phoenix, ZEEL.

Geoffrey, and Aidan asked me to help organise the opening. We invited Jonny Hannah, King Toad ( Peter Lloyd ) and the Singers from SHARPS the folk club to perform. D.Js Mike Gavin and Parker spinned discs inbetween the acts. 
Geoffrey gave an emotional speech to open the show, and at the last minute he asked me to compare the evening. 
It was a GREAT NIGHT! ( photographs by Etienne Gilfilan apart from the last 3 images)

You can see the exhibition at any time when Cecil Sharp House is open: usually 9am–11pm, seven days a week. 14 March 2018 - 29 July 2018

Brilliant interview about the project with Geoff, Aidan and Steven Heller - http://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/golden-thread-project/

Illustrator/Comic Artist Geoff Coupland (aka ZEEL) has a longstanding interest in folklore and has previously appeared at Cecil Sharp House with his magic lantern show based on the song Babes in the Wood.

Illustrator/Printmaker Aidan Saunders is often to be seen at arts and music festivals with his Print Wagon, freshly pressing lino prints. His fascination with Americana was the spark that formed the basis of the Golden Thread Project.

BOUND TO BRISTOL - Pop Up Exhibition U.W.E

Both my 'Cosmic Forces' and a pop-up rubber stamp workshop book, were featured in Bound to Bristol, a pop up 2 day exhibtion at the University of the West of England's Bower Ashton Campus.

Bound to Bristol is delighted to present a pop-up two-day exhibition, showcasing a collection of artists’ books.

This exhibition is inspired by and sourced from the personal collection of Sarah Bodman, senior research fellow in Artists’ Books at the Centre for Fine Print Research, at UWE Bristol.

Produced by four MA/MFA Curating students from the university, the exhibition aims to present a diverse range of works produced by artists, whose practices are either based in Bristol, or influenced by the city. The extensive range of books, brought together in this way, will map out connections between the objects and their authors, and celebrate the work’s intrinsic diversity.

The exhibition will encourage visitors to pick up and flick through the books on display. Visitors are also invited to contribute to The Bristol Reading List during the show – please feel free to record the title of your favourite book, or a book that everyone should read.

The show is curated in conjunction with two artists’ books workshops, which will be drop-in and free to attend for all. The workshops will allow the public to take inspiration from the exhibition, and to try their hands at creating their own Artists’ Books. The next will take place at Hamilton House on the 17th March, in the Community Arts Space, between 11am and 2pm.

Exhibiting artists: Craig Atkinson, Guy Begbie, Angie Butler, Sarah Bodman, Chrystal Chernwichan, Paul Cooke, Anwyl Cooper-Willis, Lisa Davies, Helena de la Guardia, Jeremy Dixon, Andrew Eason, Bernard Fairhurst, Kate Farley, Fluxus Lab, Stephen Fowler, Hazel Grainger, Charlotte Hall, Gen Harrison, Nadine James, Éilis Kirby, Cecilia Mandrile, Imi Maufe, Natalie McGrorty, Jon McNaught, Kar Mern Tan, Jonathan Monk, Linda Parr, Carinna Parraman, Paul Salt, Ruth Sidgwick, Tom Sowden, Cathey Webb, Rebecca Weeks, Corinne Welch, and Philippa Wood.

F-block gallery, UWE Bristol, City Campus at Bower Ashton, Kennel Lodge Road, Bristol BS3 2JT.

to download an exhibition catalogue follow this link - http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bound/

Passport Office Traveling to Malmö, Sweden

The Passport Office has been invited to take up residence at Malmö Artist’s Book Biennial. (MABB)
My Passport Officer shirt is being altered, (a new patch will be made) and a redesign for both the Passports and official rubber stamps has been requested. 22 stamps for all the participating stalls, publishers and book artists will be sourced from my collection, or especially carved. 
I'm very excited. 
It takes place on 20/21 April 2018. 
How will it be received ? Come along or watch this space and find out! 

http://www.mabb2018.se/  

MABB – Malmö Artists’ Books Biennial, will be a Swedish and International exhibi­tion and selling platform for art works that are inspired by the structural and conceptual properties of the book form.

MABB, arranged for the first time 2018, will invite both national and inter­national artists, publishers, booksellers and organizations to participate in the first International fair for artist’s books in Sweden – an art genre that is attracting more and more attention.

Life Drawing

Last week I took part in a life drawing class. 
Its been along time since I've dared too. 
I decided to use torn sugar paper to help me start, avoiding the glare of blank white paper. 
I was still somewhat nervous to begin with. However after a short while I begun to enjoy the process, and time fly by. I could have stayed all day.  

Roller Printing with the Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking MA Students UWE, Bristol.

Last year I was asked to run a roller printing workshop, alongside Angie Butler, for the University of the West of England's Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking MA 1st year Students. 
This was the third time I've worked with the Course, and the students response was particularly excellent this time round.
I'll back again this coming May. 

https://courses.uwe.ac.uk/WW1212/multi-disciplinary-printmaking